Trade for the Environment: Transboundary Hazardous Waste Movements after the Basel Convention

Yang, Shiming

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3386820

Cited by 5 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Several studies have explored the responses of the major industrialized countries to the China Ban. After the Ban, waste plastics began to pile up in these countries, including the United States, Canada, Germany, and other Western European countries [11][12][13]. Previously recyclable waste has become garbage to be landfilled because it has no market value [14,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

China’s ban of imported recyclable waste and its impact on the waste plastic recycling industry in China and Taiwan

Yoshida

2021

J Mater Cycles Waste Manag

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In 2017 the Chinese government announced to a ban on the importation of several kinds of recyclable waste that could be replaced by domestic recyclable waste. Current research on this subject has placed an emphasis on the issues faced by exporting countries and Southeast Asia as an alternative destination of plastic wastes. However, there has been little study on changes in the waste recycling industry in China and other export destinations such as Taiwan. In this study, I conducted a field survey in China and Taiwan and reviewed the history of Chinese recyclable waste import policy and its impacts on plastic recycling industries. The results show that China switched from directly importing waste plastics from exporting countries to importing recycled pellets via third-party countries, primarily from Southeast Asia. Although Taiwan’s import volume of waste plastics has increased since 2018, improper (i.e. illegal) imports such as those commonly reported in Southeast Asian countries have not been reported in Taiwan. Even after Taiwan implemented tightened import controls in October 2018, it was still able to import enough recycled waste to meet domestic demand. The case of Taiwan shows that proper import controls can contribute to a more sustainable global circular economy.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

China’s ban of imported recyclable waste and its impact on the waste plastic recycling industry in China and Taiwan

Yoshida

2021

J Mater Cycles Waste Manag

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“…Like commodities, waste is imported and exported from one country to another ( Cotta, 2020 ; Kellenberg, 2012 ; Lipman, 2015 ). This practice has social, environmental and economic implications and is a sustainability challenge at a global level ( Cotta, 2020 ; Yang, 2020 ). The transboundary movement of waste consists of various waste streams governed by a patchwork of national, regional and international laws.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Its transboundary movement remains an ongoing challenge ( The Basel Convention, 2011 ). Overcoming the challenges is also technology and capital intensive ( Yang, 2020 ). It is worth noting that the Basel Convention only covers the transboundary movement of hazardous waste, which comprises a significant and important fraction of all waste.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transboundary movement of waste review: From binary towards a contextual framing

et al. 2022

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Multiple cases of toxic waste dumping from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries to non-OECD countries in the 1980s led to scholarly attention to transboundary waste movements. The Basel Convention was established to provide an international legal framework to tackle such problems in the early 1990s, focusing on hazardous waste. However, the transboundary movement of all waste, not just hazardous waste, remains a societal challenge globally, frequently surfacing as an ethical question on the one hand and a story of resource management/trade on the other. This phenomenon has been studied across disciplines resulting in diverse, scattered and often contested understandings. Despite previous and ongoing efforts, waste production, management and transboundary movements are increasing and are predicted to grow significantly with global social, environmental and economic implications. This literature review uses a research synthesis and problematisation approach to critically analyse the transboundary waste literature since 1985. The findings highlight research trends, the need for data reliability and policy coherence, and the sustainability implications of the phenomenon. One recurring theme in the literature is the reduction of the complex phenomenon involving multiple countries, policies, actors and waste streams into simple opposite narratives, which we called transboundary waste binaries. We have identified and then challenged assumptions behind transboundary waste binaries and discussed the implications of such assumptions on the broader discourse. We have concluded with future research recommendations to look past the transboundary waste binaries towards a nuanced and contextual understanding of transboundary waste flows.

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“…Some type of waste as radioactive materials are excluded from the reports. In its more than 30 years, BaC has revealed the difficulties to obtain accurate information regarding the magnitude and direction of global HW flows 5 , 17 . The information recorded by the BaC on waste trade does not contain information on illegal trade.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The world-wide waste web

et al. 2022

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Countries globally trade with tons of waste materials every year, some of which are highly hazardous. This trade admits a network representation of the world-wide waste web, with countries as vertices and flows as directed weighted edges. Here we investigate the main properties of this network by tracking 108 categories of wastes interchanged in the period 2001–2019. Although, most of the hazardous waste was traded between developed nations, a disproportionate asymmetry existed in the flow from developed to developing countries. Using a dynamical model, we simulate how waste stress propagates through the network and affects the countries. We identify 28 countries with low Environmental Performance Index that are at high risk of waste congestion. Therefore, they are at threat of improper handling and disposal of hazardous waste. We find evidence of pollution by heavy metals, by volatile organic compounds and/or by persistent organic pollutants, which are used as chemical fingerprints, due to the improper handling of waste in several of these countries.

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Trade for the Environment: Transboundary Hazardous Waste Movements after the Basel Convention

Cited by 5 publications

References 30 publications

China’s ban of imported recyclable waste and its impact on the waste plastic recycling industry in China and Taiwan

China’s ban of imported recyclable waste and its impact on the waste plastic recycling industry in China and Taiwan

Transboundary movement of waste review: From binary towards a contextual framing

The world-wide waste web

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